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Community support grows for family whose son died in Okanagan Lake camping accident

Click to play video: 'Family friend speaks following tragedy near Summerland'
Family friend speaks following tragedy near Summerland
A family friend of the young boy who was killed while camping near Summerland is speaking out. As our Taya Fast reports, support is already pouring in for the family. – Aug 3, 2023

A B.C. family is the recipient of an overwhelming show of financial support in the wake of a devastating loss.

The Bakker family was camping near Peachland, at an Okanagan Lake campground, when tragedy struck and their three-year-old Kash was killed in what a family friend has described as a “freak accident.”

Ruveen Stogryn was camping with the family when tragedy struck and even worked to help revive the child. Since then, she set up a fundraiser to help support the parents and their three other children in its time of need and people have been generous in their help.

The fundraiser was at almost $49,000 Monday morning, near the original goal of $50,000.

Click to play video: 'Fundraiser for family of child who died at Okanagan Lake campsite'
Fundraiser for family of child who died at Okanagan Lake campsite

“This is a full-trauma experience,” Stogryn said in an interview last week. “Our lives are changed forever. Their lives are changed forever. We want to help them forever. We’ll think about Kash forever…Truly, our sole focus is just wanting to help the family because nothing that we do or say, even our fundraising efforts … will ever help this pain.”

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In an email sent this weekend, Stogryn said it was a rotten tree that uprooted and fell on the family’s campsite, killing Kash.

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She was previously of the understanding it was a tree that had been on the ground that rolled on the child, but offered clarification later, noting she wasn’t there when the accident happened.

BC Parks and The BC Coroner’s Service are investigating the death that was caused by a tree fall.

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